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A looming crisis over enlisting Haredi men into the Israel Defense Forces is posing a risk to the governing coalition and splitting the state.

Public opinion on the issue has shifted dramatically in Israel after two years of war, and this is now possibly the most explosive political issue facing the Prime Minister.

The Legal Conflict

Lawmakers are now debating a piece of legislation to end the exemption awarded to ultra-Orthodox men enrolled in Torah study, created when the State of Israel was declared in 1948.

That exemption was struck down by Israel's High Court of Justice two decades ago. Interim measures to extend it were officially terminated by the court last year, forcing the cabinet to commence conscription of the Haredi sector.

Some 24,000 draft notices were delivered last year, but just approximately 1,200 ultra-Orthodox - or Haredi - draftees showed up, according to army data given to lawmakers.

Friction Erupt Onto the Streets

Tensions are erupting onto the public squares, with lawmakers now debating a new draft bill to compel yeshiva students into national service together with other secular Israelis.

Two representatives were confronted this month by some extreme ultra-Orthodox protesters, who are enraged with the legislative debate of the draft legislation.

Recently, a elite police squad had to extract enforcement personnel who were targeted by a big group of ultra-Orthodox protesters as they sought to apprehend a man avoiding service.

Such incidents have led to the development of a new messaging system dubbed "Dark Alert" to send out instant alerts through ultra-Orthodox communities and mobilize demonstrators to block enforcement from happening.

"This is a Jewish state," stated one protester. "It's impossible to battle the Jewish faith in a nation founded on Jewish identity. It is a contradiction."

A World Separate

Yet the transformations sweeping across Israel have not yet breached the confines of the Kisse Rahamim yeshiva in Bnei Brak, an religious community on the edge of Tel Aviv.

In the learning space, teenage boys study together to debate Jewish law, their vividly colored writing books standing out against the lines of white shirts and traditional skullcaps.

"Visit in the early hours, and you will see many of the students are engaged in learning," the dean of the academy, a senior rabbi, said. "Via dedicated learning, we protect the soldiers in the field. This constitutes our service."

Ultra-Orthodox believe that continuous prayer and religious study defend Israel's military, and are as crucial to its security as its advanced weaponry. This tenet was acknowledged by Israel's politicians in the earlier decades, he said, but he acknowledged that Israel was changing.

Growing Societal Anger

The ultra-Orthodox population has significantly increased its percentage of the nation's citizens over the past seven decades, and now accounts for 14%. An exemption that started as an exception for a small number of yeshiva attendees became, by the beginning of the recent conflict, a group of some 60,000 men exempt from the draft.

Polling data suggest backing for drafting the Haredim is increasing. A poll in July showed that a large majority of the broader Jewish public - including almost three-quarters in Netanyahu's own right-wing Likud party - favored sanctions for those who declined a enlistment summons, with a solid consensus in supporting withdrawing benefits, passports, or the electoral participation.

"It seems to me there are individuals who live in this country without contributing," one serviceman in Tel Aviv commented.

"It is my belief, however religious you are, [it] should be an reason not to fulfill your duty to your country," said a Tel Aviv resident. "If you're born here, I find it quite ridiculous that you want to exempt yourself just to study Torah all day."

Views from Within the Community

Backing for extending the draft is also found among traditional Jews beyond the ultra-Orthodox sector, like a Bnei Brak inhabitant, who lives near the yeshiva and notes non-Haredi religious Jews who do enlist in the army while also maintaining their faith.

"I'm very angry that the Haredim don't enlist," she said. "It is unjust. I too follow the Jewish law, but there's a proverb in Hebrew - 'Safra and Saifa' – it represents the scripture and the guns together. That is the path, until the messianic era."

Ms Barak maintains a small memorial in her city to fallen servicemen, both religious and secular, who were fallen in war. Long columns of faces {